Method of and apparatus for operating the doors of elevator installations



May 30, 1933- F. A. BOEDTCHER ,7

' METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR OPERATING THE DOORS OF ELEVATOR INSTALLATIONS Filed Jan. 29, 1929 BY W 4 l A'TTEYS.

Patented May 39, I933 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE f FRANZ A. nonnronnn, or BnnGnNrInLn, NEW annsnY. n'ssreivon ro'o'rIs ELE ATOR corarnnr, or JERSEY CITY, new anlasay, A ooaronnrlon on NEW JERSEY METHOD or AND ArrAnArUs ronornnnrrneTHE-nooks or ELEVATOR insrntm rrons Application filed January 29, Seria1 Nor335fi66. i i

This invention resides in the operation of elevator car and shaft doors through the employment of magnetism functioning. to.

connect one or bothot said doors to an appropriate prime mover, or to one another in cases where the power for operating said door or doors is app-lied directlyto one of them.

In some elevator installations, shaft doors only are provided with, no door on the car, but the more common practice is to provide both the car and floor openings with doors.

The-object of the. present invention is to provide an eflicient, economical and unusually simple construction, whereby, when beopened by operating means carried by the car to permit of access into or from the car.

According to the present invention, the door operating mechanism is mounted on'the car and this operating mechanism is made effective to open and "close the shaft door through magnetically operated means. In

practically carrying out Q the invention, a magnet is preferably mounted on the car, in such manner as tomove in thedirection'of opening and closing of the shaft 'door'and this magnet is, adapted for cooperation with an armature associated with ashatt door, so that when the magnet is energized it (:0- operates with the armature on the door with the result that subsequent movement of the magnet in a direction to open the door, will bring about they opening of such door without necessarily having any mechanical connection between these parts. The magnet on the car may be secured to the car door, and

be bodily moved by such car door through the application of power to the car door by any appropriate prime mover, or the prime mover may act to move the magnet which in turn, through magnetic attraction acts upon the armature of the floor door to move the door. Furthermore, in installations where the car is provided with a door it is desirable in some cases to apply the door operating power to the magnet from a suitable prime mover and to then utilize the magnetic 'force of such magnetto act up'on armatureson bothofv the doors. A single derlying suchoperation. the car stops at a fioorythe floor door may -j magnet vwill"satisfactorily function for the performance pf these purposes althougha plurality of-magnets'ma'y be employed Without departing from this invention. Inall of these cases; however, power is applied through a prime mover on the car-and is made effective to. open the'shaft door by a magnetic "ffl'u'x circuit binding together by magnetic attraction. a driving and a driven element, the latter of which, is connected to the door to be operated. The/present invention; includes not "only mechanism for operating the vator installations butalso the method' un Features of the-invention, other than those adverted to, will be. apparent from the hereina'fter detailed description and claims when read in conjunction withv the accompanying drawing, J

doors of elev Theaccompanying drawing ill'ustratesfdi f Q 'ferent practical embodiments of the invention, but the constructions therein shown are to be understood as illustrative, only; "and not as defining the limits of the invention},

- Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a floordoor and a car door suspended for sliding movement and with'which the present inventio-nis associated Figure 2 structure of Figure 1. v I p Figure3 is a view similar toFigure 2,.but illustratingamodifie d tormfof construction. F iguret isa' fragmentary side elevation of the-structurelillustrated, in Figure 3.

Referring. lirstto Figures land 2, the

doors one a shaft door and the othera car door. These doors dare-supported in any ers 3 and 4, coactingwithtraoks 5 and 6, respectively. Supported on the door 2 is a magnet 7, so as to be fixed with respect to the door and supported on the doorl is an armature 8 which is preferably flexible in a directlon toward and away from the magnet so that. when magnetically attracted, the

is agvertical sectionthrough' the reference charactersi1'and2 designate two suitable Way, such, for. example, as by hang- '9 may be toggle or any other appropriate mechanism for sliding the door 2 to and fro on the track 6. In practice, the prime mover 9 may operate to move the door from both open to closed position, and :vice versa, or may move the door in only one direction while spring or other appropriate means moves it in the opposite direction. The manner of actually operating the door 2 is inconsequential other than the fact that the. prime mover actsto move the door 2, and thus move the magnet 7 which is carried by the door.

If the door 2- is operated by the prime mover 9 Without energizing the magnet 7, the door 1 will remain stationary. On the other hand, if prior to moving the door 2 by the prime mover 9, the magnet 7 is energized, it will attract the armature 8 and 'bind it firmly to the core of the magnet so that when the door 2 is operated, the door 1 will be also operated. In other words, the energizing of the magnet will bring about a magnetic connection between the two doors and thus en'- able their conjoint operation "due of course to the magnetic flux circuit thereby established. I I I The arrangement of Figures'l and 2 lends itself to a highly economical elevator installation, because no operating means need be associated with the door 1. In practice, the door. 1 may bethe shaft door and 2 the car door, orvice versa, but the most economical installation results when' 1 is the shaft door and 2 the car door. In such an installation there need be no operating mechanism on the shaft doors other than mere armatures 8,

which are normally retracted as shown in Fig. 2 from the core of the magnet. Accordingly, the car can travel up and down the shaft with the magnet de-energized and there will be no coaction whatever between the parts until the car is are floor and the magnet is operated to attract the pixtaposed armature. v I

With thisarrangement, there is no tendency of breakage in parts, such as would occur if cooperating shoes and channels were provided on the car and shaft as have heretofore been the case where purely mechanical connections have operating doors. There need be no such-mechanical connections in accordance with the present invention. The securing of the doors together for simultaneous operation from a common prime mover is dependent solely upon the magnetic flux circuit to which I have referred.

It will be further apparent that with this invention all need of gearing between operating mechanism associated with the different doors is entirely eliminated. The connection between the doors is a direct magnetic connection, the only movable part of which, as shown in the drawing, is the flexible armature 8.

been provided between co- In Figures 1 and 2, the magnet is mounted on the door 2 and the prime mover acts upon the same door to move the door and the magnet with it. There are installations wherein relatively light'doors or gates are provided on the car, or wherein the car is not provided with either a door or gate, and yet it is desirable to actuate the floor doors with the car door or gate if it has one or without the car door or gate if it does not have one. In, such installations, the arrangement shown in Figures 3 and 4 is particularly appropriate. In this showing, the link 9a, actuated by a cranlelti that is driven from a suitable motor 17 through appropriate reduction gearing 18, applies power to a carriage 10 mounted for movement parallel to the direction of'movement of the door or doors on rollers and tracks 11 and 12, respectively. The magnet 7a is supported by this carriage.

The doors 1a and 2a are supported on hangers 3a and 4a which ride on tracks 50: and and 6a. and these tracks are parallel tot-he tracks 12, so that whenthe motor 17 actuates the carriage to move it longitudinally of the tracks in either one or both directions as in the case of the prime mover 9, the magnet 7a will traverse both parallel to the path of movement of the doors. The doors 1a and 240 have armatures 8a and S?) which, when the magnet is energized, are both drawn toward the magnet and to one another to tie the doors together for simultaneous operation under power derived from the motor 17 acting through the carriagelO and magnet 7 a. In practice, the two doors 1a and 2a may be thus simultaneously operated or if there is only one door in the installation, such as either the door'la or 2a, the same generalmode of op eration will be eflective.

' Amagnet may be mounted on each shaft door or'may be associated with the shaft adjac'ent'each door,'but, in practice, I find it more economical'to associate a single magnet with a car so as to be carried with the car up and down the shaft and successively into and out of cooperation with all of the floor doors. I I v v The importance of this last construction will immediately be apparent to those skilled in the art because when the invention is thus practiced, no operating means whatever need be associated with any of the floor doors other than a mere armature. In other words, the expensive door operating mechanisms for each individual'door of the shaft is entirely eliminated and a single operating mechanism carried by the car functionsas a common door operating mechanism for the doors of all the floors. This saves a tremendous amount of'wiring in electrical system and an equally large amount of duplicated mechanisms in the mechanical and pneumatic systems; Viewing the matter from anotherangle, it

appears that a single magnet associated with the car and energized at such time as the car is in jingtaposition with the floor and it is desired to open or close the door, will serve as an operating mechanism for all of the floor doors which may be wholly devoid of extraneous operating means With this arrangement, therefore, the cost of operating the floor doors in addition to the means for operating the car door is negligible.

It will of course be understood that the magnet or magnets 7 are energized from any suitable source of current supply which is indicated generally by the circuit 14 having therein a control switch 15, which, in practice, may be operated either manually or may be associated with the operating system of the elevator in any appropriate manner to cause the magnet or magnets to be energized at desired times. I

In the event that switch 15 is manually operable, it preferably is located in the car for operation when it is desired to energize the magnet for coupling the doors for operation by the prime 'movelr. When the switch is in open position the car door and hatchway'door may be manually operated. Such manual operation may be effected, in the arrangement shown in Figures 3 and 4, without exerting additional force to cause idle movement of carriage 10 and idle operation of the prime mover 9a. This arrangement is of particular advantage in case the prime mover gets out of order as it lessens the eifort required in such cases to operate the doors manually. The arrangement shown in Figures 3 and 4 thus provides for operating the doors in both directions by power while at the same time permitting the doors to be readily operated by hand. It

is to be understood that in the event switch 15 is associated with the operating system of the elevator car for automatic operation to energize magnet 7 a at desired times, an additional switch may be provided in the car for manual operation to deenergize the mag net in case the prime mover gets out of or-.

der, as above described.

The foregoing detailed description sets forth the preferred practical embodiments of the invention, but these embodiments are to be understood as illustrative, the invenwhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

\ 1. In an elevator installation embodying a shaft provided with floor doors, and a car movable in said shaft and also provided with a door, the combination of a magnet carried by the car and movable in the direction parallel to the direction of movement of the car and floor doors, armatures associated with the car and floor doors and positioned to be juxtaposed with the magnet when the car is at rest at a particular floor, means for ener gizing the magnet to magnetically secure the armatures of the shaft and car doors to the magnet,and means for thereupon moving the magnet to carry the doors along with it.

2. In an elevator installation; an elevator carried by said car, said carriage being movable transversely of the openings closed by said gate and door and being disconnected ing said carriage, said means comprising a prime mover connected to said carriage; an armature on said gate; an armature on said door; and an electromagnet mounted on said carriage, said. electromagnet when energized acting on said armatures to couple said gate and door to said carriage for movement therewith by said moving means.

In testimony whereof I ha've signed the foregoing specification.

FRANZ 'A. 'BoEDToHER.

tion being as broadly novel as the appended claims.

I have referred in theforegoing detailed description to doors as associated with the shaft and with the car, but I wish it understood that by the use of this term, I also 7 include gates of either the rigid or collapsing types. With both doors and gates, they are opened by a rectilinear sliding or collapsing movement and are thus susceptible to mag netic operation in the manner hereinbefore described.

Having thus fully described the invention,

car; a car gate a hatchway door; a carriage from said gate and door; means for mov- 

